Having spent some time in France and a little in Italy, our pursuit of harmony now takes us to the British Isles.
While Gherardello da Firenze’s Tosto che l’alba is a fine three part example of the caccia, there is an even more famous specimen of the caccia/round/rota (take your pick) that comes from England – the astonishing six part Reading rota (otherwise known as Sumer is icumen in).
If you’re wondering what the Latin instructions say:
Four companions can sing this round. But it should not be sung by fewer than three, or at the very least, two in addition to those who sing the pes. This is how it is sung. While all the others are silent, one person begins at the same time as those who sing the ground. And when he comes to the first note after the cross [which marks the end of the first two bars], another singer is to begin, and thus for the others. Each shall observe the written rests for the space of one long note [triplet], but not elsewhere.
But Britain isn’t just famous for this round. We can also take the lion’s share of the credit for the consistent use of the intervals of thirds and sixths.
To get your ears accustomed, here are the fifths of simple organum, followed by the ‘imperfect consonances’ of thirds and then – combining the two – the full sound of 14/15th century English choral music.
Here are some actual instances:
The text of Redit aetas aurea promises the arrival of a golden age on the accession to the throne of Richard the Lionheart in 1189:
Other examples of the use of these dissonances or, as they had by now become, ‘imperfect consonances’, are to be found in the Gymel, a two-part composition (Gymel = cantus gemellus = twin song); this gymel’s text is a middle English version of the Stabat Mater (listen to all those thirds!).
Meanwhile, as an aside and for comparison, here is what the contemporary, Celtic music of Cornwall sounded like.
The style of using strings of thirds became known as English discant – its resemblance to English music of the early twentieth century, particularly Vaughan Williams, is interesting! A piece from the Worcester manuscript:
And, finally, a composer with a name! At the edge of the Renaissance, one of England’s greatest and most influential musicians:
John Dunstable
(c. 1390 – 1453):
Ave Maris Stella
“This manner of singing is mery to the singer and to the herer”
“…the more imperfit tones that a man synges in the trebyll
the merrier it is.”
English mediaeval theory
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The Art of Listening 